Jail sentences for two men that disrupted Mass in German Cathedral

Berlin, Germany, Jul 9, 2004 / 12:00 am (CNA).- A German court in Maguncia has sentenced two men to 5 months in jail for disrupting Mass last Sunday celebrated in the city’s Cathedral by the local bishop and president of the Bishops Conference of Germany, Cardinal Karl Lehmann.

The two men, 29 and 45 years old respectively, received jail time just one day after the profaned the celebration of a Mass that was being broadcast live on television in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the first televised Mass on the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen network.

The two men interrupted the Sunday Mass, pulled the linen off the altar, sending the ornaments and candles of the altar crashing to the floor. One of the men shouted indiscernible Bible verses through a megaphone inside the Cathedral.